Part 3 (1/2)
Sandy was studying the ceiling
'I should add that it's about as safe as playing chuck-farthing at the Loos Cross-roads, the day you and I went in And if we fail nobody can help us'
'Oh, of course, of course,' said Sandy in an abstracted voice
Mr Blenkiron, having finished his after-dinner recumbency, had sat up and pulled a small table towards him Froun to play the game called the Double Napoleon He seemed to be oblivious of the conversation
Suddenly I had a feeling that the whole affair was stark lunacy Here e three si a mission into the enemy's citadel without an idea ere to do or hoere to do it And one of the three was looking at the ceiling, and whistling softly through his teeth, and another was playing Patience The farce of the thing struck hed
Sandy looked at me sharply
'You feel like that? Same with me It's idiocy, but all war is idiotic, and the o on this mad trail wherever we think we can hit it Well, I' that I'ot myself adjusted to this trench business and was quite happy And now you have hoicked me out, and my feet are cold'
'I don't believe you knohat fear is,' I said
'There you're wrong, dick,' he said earnestly 'Every s, but I never started on theet easier, and by the ti out I'm sorry to leave it But at the start ?'
'Rather,' he said 'You didn't io back on you?'
'And you, sir?' I addressed Blenkiron
His gaht little heaps of cards with a contented grunt As I spoke, he raised his sleepy eyes and nodded
'Why, yes,' he said 'You gentlerossing conversation I guess I haven't aestion after meals and conduces to quiet reflection John S Blenkiron is with you all the tiame
I don't think I ever expected a refusal, but this ready assent cheeredalone
'Well, that's settled Now for ways and ot to put ourselves in the way of finding out Gero where it is known Somehow or other we have to reach Constantinople, and to beat the biggest area of country we et into Turkey You're the only one of us that knows that engaging people You can't get in by Europe very easily, so you must try Asia What about the coast of Asia Minor?'
'It could be done,' he said 'You'd better leave that entirely to n Office will help -off place?'
'Re too far east The secret, so far as concerns us, is still west of Constantinople'
'I see that I'll blow in on the Bosporus by a short tack'
'For you, Mr Blenkiron, I would suggest a straight journey You're an Ah Germany direct But I wonder how far your activities in New York will allow you to pass as a neutral?'
'I have considered that, Sir,' he said 'I have given soreat Ger as cats, and if you play the feline game they will outwit you every time Yes, Sir, they are no slouches at sleuth-work If I were to buy a pair of false whiskers and dye o into Geruess they'd be on my trail like a knife, and I should be shot as a spy inside of a week or doing solitary in the Moabite prison But they lack the larger vision They can be bluffed, Sir With your approval I shall visit the Fatherland as John S Blenkiron, once a thorn in the side of their brightest boys on the other side But it will be a different John S I reckon he will have experienced a change of heart He will have coreat, pure, noble soul of Gerun- He will be a victim of theto have a first-class roith your Foreign Office aboutto speak harsh words about the to be shadowed by your sleuths at ainst the British Legations in Scandinavia By that tiun to wonder what has happened to John S, and to think that et to Ger for e e them I will confide to them valuable secret information about British preparations, and I will show up the British lion as the ood impression After that I'll move eastwards, to see the demolition of the British Empire in those parts By the here is the rendezvous?'
'This is the 17th day of November If we can't find out ant in two months we ather in Constantinople Whoever gets there first waits for the others If by that date we're not all present, it will be considered that the iven up If ever we get there we'll be co from different points and in different characters, so ant a rendezvous where all kinds of odd folk asse-place'